|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Top Stories in Science
|
September 2004 Issue |
||
| [D] Defence and security |  |
||
|
|
|
|
|
To reduce the risk of nuclear proliferation, the US Department of Energy is developing a sealed portable nuclear power plant that can meet the energy needs of developing countries without the risk that they will use the by-products to make weapons. The aim is that the sealed reactor can be delivered to a site, left to generate power for up to 30 years, and retrieved when its fuel is spent. To sustain power generation for 30 years, the sealed reactor will have to be engineered to act as a breeder, using some of the neutrons to convert non-fissile isotopes such as uranium-238 into fissile plutonium-239. [D][P] Recent investigations in Iran by the UN International Atomic Energy Authority have removed some but not all of the concerns that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon. [D][P] Russia is planning to increase its defence budget by 40 percent during the coming year. This is in order to cope with the complex defence tasks it faces and to increase its number of full-time regiments and reduce its reliance on conscript units. [D] Using a novel screening technique, researchers at the University of Chicago have discovered three unrelated compounds that inhibit the two anthrax killer toxins – oedema factor and lethal factor. [D][G][H] Researchers have confirmed that the bird flu influenza virus infects cats, and some disputed reports also suggest it may have succeeded in infecting pigs. The virus might develop the ability to spread rapidly among humans either through combining with a human flu, in pigs for example, or by progressively evolving on its own through infecting species that select for viruses better adapted to mammals. Some researchers think that it was via this latter route that the highly lethal 1918 flu pandemic evolved. [D][H] At present, the only two ways to stem an influenza epidemic are with vaccines and with antiviral drugs. In an epidemic caused by a new strain of flu virus, it would take 6 months or longer to produce a new vaccine in sufficient quantities, and therefore antiviral drugs would be crucial in preventing a pandemic. Unfortunately, a study of Japanese children with influenza and treated with the common antiviral drug oseltamivir has found that the flu virus quickly develops resistance to the drug. [D][H] More than 40 percent of the world's population does not have access to basic sanitation, and more than one billion people still use unsafe sources of drinking water, according to the WHO and UNICEF. A global trend towards urbanisation is marginalising the rural poor and putting huge strain on basic services in cities. As a result, families living in rural villages and urban slums are being trapped in a cycle of ill-health and poverty. [D][H] India and other countries in Asia may be facing a water crisis because ground water is being extracted far faster than it can be replenished by monsoons. The falling water table is already turning parts of India into desert. If this is unchecked, widespread famines are likely in decades to come. India is set to overtake China as the world's most populous nation by 2050. [D][E] A desalination plant being built on Israel's Mediterranean coast, promises to provide water at around US $0.52 a cubic metre. It uses reverse osmosis in which the sea water is pumped through a semi-permeable membrane that prevents dissolved ions passing through. The plant will produce 100 million cubic metres a year, about one seventh of the domestic water demand in Israel, excluding agriculture and industry. Solving the problem of water supply could make a major contribution to long term peace in the Middle East. [D][E][M][P] The US Army Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) testbed has successfully shot down multiple mortar rounds in tests representative of actual mortar threat scenarios. This demonstrates that laser weapons could be applied on the battlefield to protect against common threats. [D][O] |
|||
| [A] Aeronautics and space | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
US Navy researchers have found that a polymer used to coat golf balls, bowling pins and helmets is able to instantly self-heal over bullet holes. This could enable fuel tanks on military aircraft to be made lighter, and could be used to improve the survival of aircraft hit by anti-aircraft fire and shrapnel. [A][M] The active aeroelastic wing (AAW) is flexible enough to be twisted on demand, removing the need for ailerons and flaps to control flight. There are huge potential benefits. Reducing the weight of a jumbo jet's wing by 10 percent would save about $1.4 million a year in fuel per plane. For military aircraft, AAW offers better fuel efficiency and longer range, and also better manoeuvrability that could be exploited in future robotic aircraft. However, the AAW is an enormous challenge in terms of the real time safety-critical software that it requires. [A][C][T][U] NASA planners are working on the next generation of spacecraft that they hope will ferry cargo, robots and astronauts to the moon beyond 2010. [A] An inflatable space vehicle is being developed to carry cargo back from the International Space Station to Earth. An inflatable heat shield will protect the ship and slow it down, and a second, larger inflatable will act as a parachute. The concept might also be used for an inflatable lifeboat to ferry stranded astronauts back to Earth, or be used to deliver robots to the surface of Mars. [A][U] The re-entry of the Genesis spacecraft capsule, which crashed because its parachute failed to deploy, may have provided a testbed for research on how to make thinner lighter survivable heat shields. The return flight of Genesis towards the Earth has also been used to test how well asteroid tracking systems can correctly predict a direct hit on the Earth. Genesis was carrying samples collected from the solar wind. Its crash means that much of the scientific value is probably lost. [A][M][R] NASA has given the go-ahead for a robotic mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. The robot repair mission could add another five years to the telescope's life, which will expire in 2008 without help. [A][U] ESA's Mars Express has relayed pictures from one of NASA's Mars rovers for the first time, as part of a set of interplanetary networking demonstrations. The demonstrations pave the way for future Mars missions to draw on joint interplanetary networking capabilities. [A][I] According to a study by the University of Colorado, data from the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey spacecraft suggest that the region surrounding the landing site of the Mars rover Opportunity probably had a body of water of least 330,000 square kilometres area, a size comparable to the Baltic Sea. The Mars Rover Spirit, examining bedrock in the "Columbia Hills," is also finding evidence that water thoroughly altered some rocks in Mars' Gusev Crater. [A][R][U] |
|||
| [U] Unmanned vehicles and robotics | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
Future NASA robots will incorporate much more artificial intelligence so that they are more self-reliant and can carry out missions much faster by being able to make basic decisions themselves. [U] DARPA has funded the next stage of the X47-B combat drone as part of the operational assessment phase of the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) demonstration programme. Key missions envisaged include suppression of enemy air defences, precision strike, electronic attack, and surveillance deep into enemy airspace. It is hoped that many unmanned fighters would be networked and controlled from land or from an aircraft carrier. [U][A][D] |
|||
| [P] Propulsion and energy | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
The first solar sail has been tested in space. Two sail geometries both proved successful - a four-leaf clover design and a fan design. A solar sail might enable a spacecraft to travel to nearby stars propelled by a laser beam from Earth. [P][A][O] Whales, dolphins, seals, and penguins use their versatile flippers to guide themselves through the water. By copying the flippers' design, engineers hope to make ocean vessels more manoeuvrable and efficient. Penguins have incredible manoeuvrability and can generate forces that are huge in proportion to their small body. Humpbacked whales have scalloped edges to their side flippers that increase lift and greatly reduce drag. [P][A][E][T] As a way to limit peak demand and to avoid black-outs, parts of California are trialing smart metering of electricity consumption in which the price of electricity varies dynamically depending on the demand at the time. [P][I][T] Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is expected to become as ubiquitous and crucial to the global economy as petroleum is today. Soaring demand for gas has unleashed rapid innovation and investment that is driving down the capital cost of LNG. Tanker ships are getting bigger and more affordable. [P][E][T] Nuclear microbatteries use thin radioactive films that provide energy at densities thousands of times greater than those of lithium-ion batteries. By using a few milliCuries of radioisotopes such as nickle-63 or tritium, whose emissions have short ranges, the batteries can be made safe, except perhaps for use actually inside the human body. The beta-particle produced by nickle-63 has a range of 21 microns in silicon. Electric power can be extracted by creating electron-hole pairs in a p-n junction or by capturing the energy mechanically in a MEMS cantilever and converting it piezoelectrically. [P][J][S][T] According to an analysis by Princeton scientists, existing technologies could stop the escalation of global warming for 50 years. Moreover, work on implementing them can begin immediately. The scientists identified 15 technologies that are ripe for large-scale use and showed that each could prevent 1 billion tons a year of carbon emissions by 2054. Implementing all fifteen is required to solve the global warming problem. In 50 years time, permanent solutions such as fusion power will hopefully be available or sufficiently imminent. [P][E] New York's East River could soon have the world's first farm of tide-powered turbines. In the first stage, six tidal turbines will be installed that will generate 200 kW peak power. If these prove successful, up to 300 more turbines may be installed. [P][E] Cold fusion is being taken more seriously as a result of continuing work by the US Navy and a better understanding of why the past attempts to reproduce the original findings may have failed. A number of groups around the world have now reproduced the original Pons-Fleischmann excess heat effect, yielding sometimes as much as 250 percent of the energy put in. [P][M][T] Researchers at MIT have made an important step towards artificial photosynthesis by inventing a compound that, with the assistance of a catalyst, converts photon energy into chemical energy in the form of hydrogen. [P][M] Australian scientists predict that special titanium oxide ceramics, which harvest sunlight and split water to produce hydrogen fuel, can provide almost limitless energy supplies within seven years. [P][M] |
|||
| [M] Materials, structures and surfaces | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
Researchers have created a new type of superconducting wire that is remarkably strong, light, thin and long, and that has a very high critical current. The wire is made from an unusual magnesium-carbon-nickel compound layered around a carbon fibre. Improved versions of the wire could be used in the electromagnets needed in a new class of spacecraft propulsion systems. [M][A][P] Researchers at Durham University have developed the world's first plastic magnet that works at room temperature. [M] Researchers at NIST have discovered that adding carbon nanotubes to polypropylene dramatically changes how the molten polymer flows. This prevents a widespread problem known as "die-swell" in which polymers swell in undesirable directions when passing through the exit port of an extruder. [M][N] It is difficult to make glasses from most materials because they need to be cooled at rates of up to 10 million degrees per second. Scientists at 3M have developed a new approach and have used this to successfully produce bulk quantities of alumina glass. This is superior to silica-based glass in both its strength and optical properties. The researchers believe the method can be extended to make other oxide glasses. [M][O] A new computational approach may make it much easier to produce amorphous metals. It predicts what structures are likely to crystallise out of an amorphous metal as it cools and thereby helps identify how to thwart the crystallisation by the right choice of components in the alloy. The researchers have found that “spicing” an iron alloy mixture with a small amount of the large element yttrium facilitates metallic glass production. The method may also be applicable to aluminium-based mixtures that could yield lightweight, stress-resistant metallic glasses for aircraft. [M][A] Very thin light-weight radar absorbing materials can be produced using a structure consisting of two metal layers sandwiching a layer of dielectric material, such as an epoxy resin. The top layer of metal contains an array of extremely tiny holes, which allow the radiation to be channelled into the device, where it is absorbed by the resin. The materials would be useful for preventing multipath effects that can confuse air traffic management at airports and anti-collision radars on cars. [M][A][N] TWI has developed a bio-compatible coating that makes it possible to 'see' intrusive devices such as biopsy needles when they are used in ultrasound procedures. The coating produces small gas bubbles on contact with water and these reflect the ultrasound. [M][H][R][S] US researchers have reported the first large-scale manufacture of continuous macroscale fibres composed solely of single-walled carbon nanotubes. Each strand of the fibre is around 100 microns diameter and contains about a million close-packed and aligned nanotubes. [M][A][N] A window coating made from a derivative of vanadium dioxide allows visible wavelengths of light through at all times but reflects infrared light when the temperature rises over 29 degrees C. The occupants benefit from the Sun's infrared heating in cooler conditions, but the heating is reduced by up to 50 percent in hot weather. [M][E][P] |
|||
| [E] Environment, transport and marine | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
In a report to Congress, the Bush administration has accepted that global warming is a consequence of human activity. The Administration concludes that global warming in the first half of the 20th century, estimated to be 0.2 degrees C above pre-industrial temperatures, was probably due to natural climate variation including increased solar activity. However, it concludes that the 0.5 degrees C rise over the second half of the century, most pronounced in the last 30 years, can only be explained when factors related to human activity, such as carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, are taken into account. [E][P] According to climate modelling at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), severe heat waves will become more common and more lethal in the southern and western US and in parts of Europe, particularly in the Mediterranean and in much of France, Germany and the Balkans. [E][H] Europeans must learn how to live with a changing climate as well as seeking to limit its effects by cutting emissions, according to a report by the European Environment Agency (EEA). Europe's glaciers lost a tenth of their mass last year, and harvests fell by almost a third. [E][P] The Hadley Research Centre has developed a more robust climate prediction that uses a more rigorous treatment of uncertainty and avoids needing to know in detail how sensitive the climate is to carbon dioxide. The results suggest that if carbon dioxide concentrations double over the next hundred years the planet will warm by between 2.4 and 5.4 degrees C. At the lower end, this is much more severe than a previous estimate released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which predicted a range of 1.4 to 5.8 degrees C. [E][C][X] Scientists are arguing that in order to avoid catastrophic melt down of the Greenland icecap, governments need to use sequestration not just to dispose of carbon dioxide from future burning of fossil fuels but to actually start reducing the existing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. [E][P] The mineral serpentine (magnesium silicate hydroxide) is plentiful and naturally sequesters carbon dioxide. But the process is far too slow to help reduce global warming. Researchers at Penn State have developed a cyclic sequestration process in which they dissolve crushed serpentine in sulphuric acid. The absorption of carbon dioxide creates magnesium carbonate, which can be used to manufacture building blocks. The process also captures the sulphur dioxide that is produced and replenishes the sulphuric acid. The researchers believe the process can be made cheap enough to economically sequester carbon dioxide at power stations. [E][M][P] Whether global warming will affect the Ocean Conveyor, including the Gulf Stream, is strongly dependent on the future temperature distribution and fresh water supply over the North Atlantic. Most models predict increased precipitation in high latitudes and some warming over the North Atlantic if carbon dioxide levels double. How far this will weaken the circulation varies considerably among the models, with some even indicating little to no change. However, even a modest weakening of the circulation could have a big effect on Europe. [E][C][X] Coastal fish pens built by the Romans have provided the most accurate record so far of changes in sea level over the past 2000 years. Nearly all the rise in sea level seems to be in the past 100 years, and is most likely the result of human activity. [E] A sediment core 272 metres long has been bored from the Arctic seafloor. Evidence from microfossils in the core indicate that it records the past 40 million years of Arctic history and may extend back to the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum, a brief period that occurred around 55 million years ago. This was characterised by an extremely warm climate that created a natural greenhouse effect and massive carbon input to sea and air. [E] A drilling operation through the Greenland icecap has recovered what appear to be plant remnants, probably several million years old, nearly two miles below the surface between the bottom of the glacial ice and the bedrock. Trapped gas in the ice cores should help determine what the area's climate history was like on an annual basis during the past 123,000 years. The findings show that the Greenland ice sheet initially formed very rapidly. [E] The threat to wild life from pollutants may be much greater than previously thought. Low concentrations of endocrine disrupters, ranging from heavy metals such as lead to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and additives such as bisphenol A, have been found to alter the behaviour of many species. Vital behaviours that have altered include mating, parenting, nest building, learning, predator avoidance, foraging, activity levels and even balance. [E] China has 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities, according to the World Bank, and pollution is costing an annual 8-12 percent of China's $1.4 trillion GDP in direct damage. This includes the impact of acid rain on crops, increased medical bills, lost work from illness, and money spent on disaster relief. Health costs are rising to an extent that could threaten China's growth. Estimates suggest that 300,000 of China's population die prematurely each year from respiratory diseases. [E][D][H][P][T][X] Up to 80 percent of the hydrocarbons that are emitted into the atmosphere from vehicles escape during the one or two minutes that catalytic converters take to get going after a cold start. Japanese researchers have found that a particular zeolite material, SSZ-33, looks very promising for capturing these hydrocarbons. The atoms in zeolites are linked into rings that form a three-dimensional framework riddled with tiny pores and channels, making a form of solid sponge. [E][M][P] |
|||
| [R] Remote sensing and sensor systems | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
The ESA Envisat has a unique combination of instruments that are proving very useful for studying hurricanes in great detail. Envisat can image both the ocean and the atmosphere more or less simultaneously. This helps in predicting a hurricane's development and path. [R][A][T] Astronomers have found three Neptune-sized planets orbiting stars, making it more likely that planets similar to Earth exist in neighbouring solar systems. All three planets were discovered using the familiar "wobble technique". In this, a planet's gravitational pull on its parent star produces changes in the star's velocity that cause a Doppler shift in the light emitted by the star. [R][F] In the UK, prolific offenders and paedophiles are to be monitored by satellite using electronic tags. The tag is worn round the offender's ankle and will be monitored by a control station that records the location of the offender to within a few metres. The system will make it possible for more offenders to serve community sentences rather than having to be detained in prison. [R][A][D] Scientists at NIST have developed a miniature atomic clock. They hope to increase the clock's long-term stability and reduce its power consumption to give a 1000-fold improvement in timekeeping in portable, battery-powered devices for secure wireless communications, precision navigation and other applications. [R][A][D][I] Active carbon fibre composite mirrors that rival Zerodur and silicon carbide mirrors but have only a tenth of the weight, are being developed and tested in the UK. If they have sufficiently good long term stability, they will offer great advantage for satellites and unmanned air vehicles, and for transportation to remote mountain tops. [R][A][O][S] |
|||
| [S] Sensor devices | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
A sensor that can be fitted to the back of a tractor can determine how much nitrogen each patch of a field needs, so that the amount of fertiliser used can be minimised. The sensor shines rapid pulses of red and infrared light onto the leaf canopy of the crop, and detects the reflected light. Undernourished plants reflect more infrared light than healthy ones. [S][E][R] Researchers at the University of Strathclyde have developed a technique for making a detailed 3D picture of a diseased area of a tooth. They used an existing imaging technique that creates optical sections by means of a beam of infra-red light in a grid pattern (structured light) ). The procedure is quick and simple, and it reveals decay at a much earlier stage than dentists can spot either mechanically or with x-rays. [S][H][R] A revolutionary new microscope developed at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory enables scientists to view relatively large biological samples in a medium that mimics real conditions, rather than destroying the sample by slicing it up to fix it into slides. The microscope not only gives a sharper image, but allows the whole specimen to continue living and growing as it is being viewed. [S][E][G][H] A new approach to NMR, called BOOMERANG, has been developed by research at Caltech. Rather than measuring an rf signal, as in conventional NMR, the new approach uses a fibre-optic interferometer to measure force. It can image liquids as well as solids, and could lead to the development of portable NMR instruments that might be used at the micron scale and below. [S][N][O] Physicists in Italy have developed a new technique for detecting forged signatures and handwriting. It works by creating a three-dimensional hologram of a sample of handwriting, which can be used to detect features that do not show up in two dimensions. [S][D][O] |
|||
| [O] Optoelectronics, optics and lasers | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
Austrian and German scientists have developed a technique that allows the first direct visualisation of the electric field of visible light. They were able to measure the instantaneous electric field of red light (quarter period ~ 620 attoseconds) and record its variation with a resolution of 100 attoseconds. [O][S] Dutch scientists have demonstrated that they can control the radiative lifetime for light emission from semiconductor quantum dots by embedding them in a photonic crystal structure. Speeding up the emission rate could lead to more efficient light sources such as LEDs, while slowing it down could help create solar cells that do not let energy leak away as light. [O][M][N][P][S] Needle-shaped nanocrystals of zinc oxide with hexagonal cross sections form "whispering galleries" for visible light, which allow certain wavelengths to gain intensity as they circulate inside the structure. The effect is surprising because the nanocrystal dimensions are very much smaller than the wavelength of the light. Nanolasers would be valuable for quantum data transfer, microscopy, and lithography. [O][N] Research at Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley has shown that semiconductor nanoribbons can be used as low-loss and highly flexible optical waveguides. They have the potential to be integrated within other active optical components to make photonic circuits. [O][J][N] Optical information networks and processors could be much faster if light could control light directly, instead of having to convert optical signals into electrical signals for routing and processing. What is needed is materials with much higher optical non-linearity than is found in current non-linear materials. Canadian researchers have now designed a hybrid material with non-linearity close to the theoretical limit. It combines nanometre-sized spherical "buckyball" particles with a designed class of polymer. The polymer and buckyball combination created a clear, smooth film. [O][M][N] A new class of quantum dots that are water soluble, strongly fluorescent, and display discrete excitation and emission spectra has important potential for biological labelling and nanoscale optics. The gold nanodots are made up of 5, 8, 13, 23 or 31 atoms, each size fluorescing at a different wavelength to produce ultraviolet, blue, green, red and infrared emissions, respectively. The fluorescence energy varies according to the radius of the quantum dot, with the smallest structures being the most efficient emitters. [O][G][N][S] Researchers at ARC Seibersdorf and the University of Vienna have successfully quantum-teleported information over km distances using entangled photons. They believe that in principle it should be possible to extend this link to 20 kilometres. Beyond this distance it becomes difficult to transmit single photons reliably. [O][I] |
|||
| [I] IT, communications, networking and secure systems | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
A UK consortium is attempting to integrate radar, microwave and broadband communications systems onto a single device, to reduce the cost and complexity of installing the technology in new cars. [I][R] 3G mobile comms is starting to grow, but more for its ability to deliver voice calls than for downloading large volumes of data. Text-messaging is hugely popular, with over a billion messages sent daily worldwide. However, other forms of wireless data, such as photo messaging, news updates, and music and game downloads, have proved much less popular in most countries, except Japan and South Korea. How 3G is used may vary from country to country. In Europe, it may just be for cheaper voice calls. In America, it may be mobile broadband access anywhere. In the developing world, 3G could help to extend telephony and internet access into rural areas. [I][K][T] Four broad categories of new technologies are removing the limitations of rf spectrum. These are: wide-band and ultra-wide-band, smart antennae, mesh networking, and so-called "cognitive radios" that use meaning and context to separate signals. [I][K][T] All the enabling technologies are now in place needed to support software-defined radio (SDR). SDR is now coming into practical everyday use, with military applications at the forefront. [I][T] Delivering broadband over power lines would enable users to connect anywhere just by plugging their computer into an electricity socket. The technology problems, mainly of suppressing noise, have been largely resolved, but regulatory concerns linger. The US and EU have recently declared that universal access to broadband Internet service is a high priority, and this may open the way forward. [I][P][T] The security of Wi-Fi has been improved by updating Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) to WPA2, which uses a US government-approved encryption system and has tighter checks to ensure that only authorised users can join wireless nets. [I] Computational biologists at IBM have devised an anti-spam filter based on an algorithm called Teiresias that the researchers were using for pattern discovery in protein annotation. The filter automatically learns patterns of spam vocabulary and has proved to be 96.5 percent efficient. The US is the biggest source of spam, despite efforts to combat unwanted e-mail, according to net security experts. [I][G][K] Sender Profile Technology (SPT) was developed to detect spam. It is essentially an authentication scheme that tries to ensure that e-mail messages come from the place that they say they do. Unfortunately, spammers have circumvented SPT so well that 34 percent more spam is passing SPT checks than legitimate e-mail, according to a survey by CipherTrust. [I][K] |
|||
| [K] Knowledge, information and technology management | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
People in the UK are buying and playing more games than ever before, with video gaming fast becoming a mainstream entertainment activity. The UK market for games was worth over £1bn in 2003. Women in the UK make up just over a quarter of the total number of gamers. This compares to 39 percent in the US and 69 percent in South Korea. The next generation of games will be very sophisticated and also much more expensive to produce. The mobile games market is still small but analysts are predicting that globally 220 million people will be playing games on mobile phones by 2009. [K][I][T] Integrating psychotherapy by telephone into a programme for treating depression can significantly improve outcomes, according to a study of 600 patients in Seattle. The results demonstrated the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of a telephone-based programme including medication monitoring, care co-ordination, and structured, depression-specific psychotherapy. [K][B][H][I] New tools are making it possible to ask a question and get an answer automatically from a search of the Web. This involves first restructuring the question into an appropriate phrase, searching to find instances of that phrase in documents on the Web, and scanning these to find the most frequent answers. [K][T] The 9/11 commission's final report paints a picture of 15 different US intelligence services using 15 different databases, with none of them able to interact with one another. It calls for the introduction of networking and knowledge management to connect communities together better. However, too much integration of government information threatens civil liberties. The key may be to build privacy checks and balances, and accountability, into the system design at the outset. [K][D][X] A Canadian team has found that, if you measure actual skills rather than educational qualifications, human capital becomes a strong predictor of economic growth. Reducing the number of people in the economy with very low skills is particularly beneficial. [K][T] The economist Janez Potocnik will be the new European commissioner for research for the Commission's next 5-year term. He is committed to the Barcelona target of raising the amount Europe spends on research and development to an average of 3 percent of GDP. Current issues include the mooted creation of a European Research Council to fund basic research and plans for a doubling of the EU research budget to 10 billion euros a year between 2007 and 2013. [K][T] Although UK universities create a very large number of spin-out companies, only a tiny fraction of these are becoming profitable businesses, according to a report by Nottingham University Business School. [K] Up to 1.2 million information technology and service jobs could disappear in Europe within the next ten years as firms move to India and elsewhere, according to a new forecast. The UK is the country most affected by this trend. [K][I] |
|||
| [C] Computing, supercomputing, modelling and simulation | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
The future of the $32 billion global recorded music industry depends critically on compression algorithms. Which algorithms win will shape the industry, for digital movies as well as recorded music. The most successful standard so far is MP3. However, no existing standard has all the characteristics necessary to dominate the market. None combines both lossless transmission and storage with the built-in ability to adapt to a variety of playback hardware. [C][I][K][T][V] A new mathematical approach for analysing the complex, subtle patterns of natural mutation in DNA will, according to its developers, help biologists understand how mutation contributes to evolutionary change in mammals. It uses a new version of Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo sequence analysis that takes into account context effects, in which the identity of neighbouring nucleotides influences the nature and rate of mutations. [C][G] A new mathematical tool that accurately predicts how long certain pollutants, including pesticides and pharmaceuticals, will remain in soil has been developed at Johns Hopkins. It will help environmental regulators and cleanup consultants estimate how readily hazardous contaminants will migrate toward critical water resources and supplies. [C][E][X] With over 6,000 computers at 78 sites internationally, the Large Hadron Collider Computing Grid (LCG) is the first permanent, worldwide Grid for doing real science. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will produce around 15 Petabytes of data each year. To deal with this vast volume of data, the LCG will, by 2007, have the equivalent of 100,000 of today's fastest computers working together to produce a 'virtual supercomputer', which can be expanded and developed as needed. [C][T] Supercomputing is now becoming sufficiently cheap and widely available that modelling and simulation will not only transform many areas of research but also the workplace. The challenge is in developing the software that can exploit the computing power, and in handling the terabytes of data. [C][T] |
|||
| [W] Whole life engineering, manufacture and testing | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
Light activated glue can be used instead of clamps to hold workpieces in position for machining, grinding and other manufacturing processes. The finished workpiece can be removed by a high power infra-red laser pulse which destroys the adhesive bond. The technology could avoid the need for mechanical clamping, which can be expensive and can deform the workpiece. [W][M][O] |
|||
| [X] Systems, complexity and risk | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
Reliability theory allows researchers to predict how a system with a specified architecture and level of reliability of its constituent parts will fail over time. Human beings show much the same dependence of failure rate with time as do machines, including the way that failure rates level off in extreme old age due to the exhaustion of redundancy. However, human reliability deteriorates much faster from age 20 to age 100 than one would expect from standard reliability models. This suggests that the self-assembly of the human body introduces a large amount of damage from the start. Human lifespan might be greatly extended if this damage, before birth and during infancy, can be reduced. [X][G][H][T][W] Many contributing factors appear to cause biological ageing at the molecular level. Which are the most important factors and how they combine and interact is still little understood. [X][G][H][T] The US power grid is one of the most complex systems every constructed, and has been designed to withstand the random loss of generators or substations. However, topological analysis of the grid structure by researchers at Penn State has revealed that in fact there are critical strategic nodes, and that major power disruption can result from loss of as few as two percent of the grid's substations. A model of the network created at Oak Ridge may allow utility companies to test grid behaviour for various network-configuration scenarios, particularly those where the grid is operating dangerously close to a cascade threshold. [X][P] A new model of how epidemics develop takes into account that larger cities are more likely to attract visitors from a distance. These large cities are therefore particularly vulnerable and are key nodes in spreading an epidemic. The model, which does not include the effects of any vaccination campaign, successfully predicted the course of past childhood measles infections in England and Wales. Exhaustive data was recorded at the time on these measles epidemics, which occurred before vaccination was introduced. [X][C][D][H] |
|||
| [V] Virtuality and human-machine interface | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
In existing virtual reality systems, users generally navigate through a space using a joystick or some similar controller. However, this lacks realism and can even cause dizziness because of the absence of a physical feeling of movement. Japanese researchers have therefore developed intelligent floor tiles that enable the user to walk through a virtual environment while remaining in one spot, connected to a virtual reality headset. [V][C] About one percent of children are born with a heart defect, and the heart in a new-born baby is so small that it is often difficult to see the nature of the defect. Danish surgeons are using virtual reality techniques that convert MRI body scans into giant, rounded models of the child's heart, which they can navigate through and explore from every angle. [V][H][R] Neuroscientists have created a computer game based on table tennis that people can play with their minds using signals picked up by a fMRI scanner. It is hoped that the technology may be able to train paraplegics to generate brain signals that can be detected with EEG to control wheelchairs or communication devices. Learning to control the activation of particular areas of the brain might also help people with depression or schizophrenia. [V][B][H] It may be possible to overcome the problem of epileptic seizure by means of a small electronic device implanted in the skull that detects oncoming seizures and then delivers a brief electrical stimulus to the brain to stop them. [V][B][H][S] |
|||
| [B] Brain research and human science | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
Usually monkeys work hard only when they know a reward is coming. However, US scientists have found a way of turning procrastinating monkeys into workaholics using gene therapy to block dopamine. Without their dopamine receptor, the monkeys consistently stayed on-task and made few errors. This was because they could no longer learn to use visual cues to predict how their work was going, and could not decide when they had done enough to get a reward. [B] Scientific testing of physiological and psychological responses to games could help games designers decide which games are going to be hits and also help ensure that gaming does not cause psychological harm to players. [B][C][K] It used to be thought that acidity, through a build-up of lactic acid, was a major cause of muscle fatigue. However, researchers in Australia and Denmark have discovered that acidity helps prevent muscle fatigue by dampening the excitability of the surface membrane and the T-system. The T-system is a network of tiny tubes in muscle fibre that allow electrical signals to move from the muscle fibre's surface to excite the whole of the fibre. [B] Testosterone boosts muscles in three weeks, much more quickly than previously thought. [B] Biological clocks are complex, and are regulated by a network of genes and transcriptional factors that interact to stabilise the rhythms of numerous physiological systems. Many of these follow the 24-hour Circadian rhythm. A study in Japan has identified 168 genes in mice that could be organised into a kind of daily schedule by their times of peak expression, some being expressed most highly at daybreak, some at dusk, some at other time-points throughout the cycle of a single day. Understanding this rhythm in detail is important for chronotherapy, which seeks to deliver drug treatments at optimal body times. [B][G][H] Tests on rodents at the University of California have shown that a protein called NPS is active in areas of the brain governing arousal and anxiety. The researchers hope this could be a target for drugs to treat sleep and anxiety disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. [B][G][H] Experiments in mice show that a protein SIRT1, which is linked to increased lifespan in yeast and worms, can also delay the degeneration of ailing nerve cell branches. By inhibiting neurone self-destruction, SIRT1 may provide a way to treat a wide range of neurodegenerative disorders. These include Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), various kinds of neuropathy, and multiple sclerosis. [B][G][H] Significant structural differences in the brains of males and females may result from selective cell death orchestrated by just a single gene during early development, according to a new study at the University of Massachusetts. When mice were genetically engineered to lack a gene called Bax, the sex differences in their brains that are obvious in normal mice were completely absent. [B][G] |
|||
| [H] Healthcare and medicine | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
Slumping in front of a computer could deactivate muscles that normally support and protect the spine, triggering low back pain. A European Space Agency study in which young men spent 8 weeks in bed, showed that an absence of load on spinal support muscles can sometimes be just as debilitating as a physical injury. Ultrasound studies have shown that in most cases of low back pain, either the lumbar multifidus muscles, which keep the vertebrae in place, or the transversus abdominis, which holds the pelvis together, or both, are inactive. [H][B][V] Intraocular lenses (IOLs) are used to replace the eye's natural lens after its removal during cataract surgery. A new generation of IOLs has been approved by the FDA that can move and focus like a younger eye's natural lens, using hinges attached to the eye's muscles. [H][V] A new pollen-blocking cream applied to the inside of the nose may alleviate hay fever without the side-effects of other remedies, according to research in Russia and Germany. [H] Artemisinin, a compound extracted from sweet wormwood, has been used for more than 1500 years in traditional Chinese medicine to treat fevers. Combinations of artemisinin derivatives such as artesunate and artemether have proved highly effective against malaria, but are too expensive for widespread use. Clinical trials have begun in the UK of a synthetic drug with similar properties to artemisinin that might provide a way to combat the resurgence in drug-resistant malaria. [H][G] Dysfunctions in tiny blood vessels, a key predictor of heart disease, can be seen in normal, healthy adolescents. This may enable people to be screened to identify high risk individuals early enough to counter cardiovascular damage. [H][S] Spectral imaging provides a means of easily screening for early signs of eye disease. Imaging at wavelengths between 580nm and 600nm reveals the oxygenation state of the blood vessels in the eye, showing which areas are healthy and which might be diseased. [H][S] |
|||
| [G] Genomics, biotechnology and bioinformatics | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
Mayo Clinic researchers have demonstrated that stem cell therapy repairs damaged heart tissue and aids recovery after heart attack. Future research needs to explore the mechanisms involved, find the optimum window for therapy, and determine what the long-term effect of such therapy will be. [G][H] Adult mouse skin contains stem cells that can generate skin and hair. If the same is true for humans, this holds promise for treating baldness and burns. [G][H] Research at Dundee University has found that the body's immune system can respond much faster than previously thought. Dendritic cells are able to respond within minutes of sensing alien cells, alerting other cells as to whether the pathogen is dangerous. The findings could be used to enhance the potency of vaccines against germs or even tumours. [G][H] Oxidative damage to DNA is believed to underlie both ageing and cancer. Researchers at Duke University have identified how oxidation of the guanine nucleotide can lead to a mispairing and permanent mutation when the DNA replicates. [G][H] Tests suggest that a blood test using three proteins found in common in the blood of women with ovarian cancer may provide an exclusive molecular signature for detecting this cancer, which is particularly dangerous because it produces no early symptoms and spreads quickly. [G][H] German researchers may have found a much more accurate way of screening for bowel cancer from a distinctive chemical, called Tumour M2-PK, that can be found in the faeces of people with the disease. Testing for the chemical could also enable doctors to find out how advanced the disease is. [G][H] Research at Lawrence Berkeley indicates that breast cancer may arise because a single cell manages to activate telomerase to evade programmed death (apoptosis) when its telomere becomes critically short. These findings suggest that people at higher risk of developing cancer can be identified in advance by measuring telomerase activity, genome instability, and other signals in the clinic. They also suggest ways to protect against breast cancer by encouraging apoptosis, preventing telomerase reactivation and specifically poisoning cells in which telomerase is active. [G][H] Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have successfully targeted unnatural sugar molecules with chemically unique functional groups onto the surfaces of cells in living animals, without altering the animals' physiology. This provides a way to label specific cells in whole animals so that researchers can differentiate one cell from another. The technique has widespread implications for basic research and for medicine. It involves "feeding" the animal a slightly modified sugar with a chemical group called an azide attached. Such sugars are not normally found on cells, but are processed by the cell's metabolic pathways similarly to normal sugars. [G][H][R] British scientists have been given permission to perform therapeutic cloning using human embryos for the first time. They are investigating new treatments for conditions including diabetes, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. Reacting to the decision, German doctors and politicians have called for an EU-wide ban on the practice. In October, the United Nations will consider a proposal for an international ban on all cloning, both reproductive and therapeutic. [G][H] Mayo Clinic researchers have demonstrated that they can permanently transfer a functioning gene to targeted tissues within the eye. This success in animals is a first step in using gene therapy to treat glaucoma. [G][H] Using cryoelectron microscope images, Purdue researchers have produced a series of high-resolution snapshots of a virus attacking its host, which have culminated in a movie of the process. This shows how the virus alters its shape in order to piece the host's membrane. Understanding this process could help prevent viral infection and also improve gene therapy techniques using viruses as the gene vectors. [G][H][N][S] |
|||
| [N] Nanotechnology and molecular technology | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
Nanobiotech offers huge promise. Many different approaches are being developed and trialed for using nanomaterials and nanodevices for medical therapy, diagnostics and screening, and for tissue reconstruction. [N][H][T] Researchers have coaxed RNA to self-assemble into 3-D arrays, a potential backbone for nanotech scaffolds. These RNA structures can form a wider variety of shapes than double-stranded DNA and are easier to manipulate than many protein alternatives. [N][G] Chemists at Harvard have developed a way of using DNA as a blueprint for building complex synthetic molecules. The researchers attached organic molecules to single DNA strands, each containing 10 DNA bases (A, C, G, or T). When two DNA strands with complementary sequences (A matches T, G matches C) spontaneously bond together, their associated organic molecules react chemically to generate a product. The DNA strands essentially serve as a miniature, sequence-programmable assembly line for chemical synthesis. Template strand of 30 DNA bases can encode three separate chemical reactions, leading to the multistep DNA-programmed synthesis of relatively complex cyclic products. [N][G][M] Computer modelling indicates that nanoparticles could be made to self-assemble into wires, sheets, shells and other unusual structures by adding discrete molecular interaction sites. These "sticky patches" that cause particles to stick together at just the right places. It is important for the interaction sites to be strongly directional and to attract and repel specific parts of other particles, much as proteins do. [N][C][G] Using pulsed lasers, researchers at North Carolina State have coaxed nickel to self-assemble into arrays of nanodots, around 7nm diameter. If each nanodot stores one bit of information, the technology might provide very high magnetic storage densities. Applying similar techniques to other materials may have significant applications in LEDs, lighting, lasers, spintronics, and optical devices. [N][J][O] Researchers have devised a simple method to produce carbon nanotube filters that efficiently remove contaminants from water and heavy hydrocarbons from petroleum. The nanotube surfaces of the filters may be chemically modified to create highly ordered and chemically selective pore spaces for high-quality separation of specific chemical mixtures. [N][M][S] Physicists at IBM have discovered that not only do carbon nanotubes emit light from electron-hole recombination, but that the spot at which the light is produced can be precisely controlled and moved back and forth along the 50 micron long, 3 nm wide tube by varying the voltage applied. The effect occurs because electrons and holes flow in nanotubes by diffusing like a fog from the two ends. Where the fogs meet depends on the voltage. [N][J][O] Researchers in US and Hungary have created transparent electrically conducting films of single-walled carbon nanotubes, and have used them to made an electric field-activated optical modulator. In the near- to mid-infrared region of the spectrum, the nanotube films appear to have the highest transparency for given electrical conductivity of anything available, and in the visible spectrum they compare well against commercially growth indium tin oxide (ITO). They could therefore have a huge range of applications for LEDs and solid-state lighting, optical and infrared detectors, photovoltaics, touch screens, electrochromics. [N][J][O][S][V] |
|||
| [J] Microelectronics, MEMS and spintronics | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
Dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) is now widely used for writing nanoscale patterns, but its application has been limited by not being able to turn the ink flow on and off. US researchers have developed a technology called thermal DPN in order to overcome this limitation. It uses a heated pen with a solid ink, octadecylphosphonic acid (OPA), that melts at about 100 degrees C. [J][N] Intel has installed the world's first commercial EUV lithography tool, and has established an EUV mask pilot line. It plans to use the EUV process in 2009 for high volume manufacturing of circuits with 32nm geometry. [J][N][O] Silicon carbide (SiC) has great advantages over silicon for making circuits to operate at high power, high frequency and high temperature. SiC circuits can operate at temperatures as high as 650 degrees C, and they are also much harder to nuclear radiation. However, SiC does not have a liquid state, and therefore crystals of SiC cannot be grown from the melt like most other semiconductors. Growing SiC from vapour produced materials with defect concentrations too high for making circuits. Now research in Japan has found a way to greatly reduce the defect concentration to a level where SiC electronics is a real prospect. [J][M] Research at Cornell has shown that it is possible to precisely control the properties of strontium titanate at the atomic level, making strontium titanate a possible replacement for silicon in very small geometry circuits. [J][M][N] |
|||
| [F] Fundamental science | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
The first evolutionary battle for survival-of-the-fittest might have played out as a simple physical duel between fatty bubbles stuffed with genetic material, according to Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The researchers suggest that genetic material that replicated quickly may have been all the bubbles needed to edge out their competitors and begin evolving into more sophisticated cells. This model differs from mainstream theories of the origin of life, which are based on the idea of the initial evolution of structural RNAs or ribozymes, enzymes that actively synthesised cell membranes or otherwise influenced cell stability or division. [F][G] Physicists from Penn State University have experimental evidence for the existence of a new phase of matter, a "supersolid" form of helium-4 with the extraordinary frictionless-flow properties of a superfluid. [F][M] Astronomers have used measurements from two distant stars to estimate an age for the Milky Way of 13.6 billion years, plus or minus 800 million years. [F][R] The Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 probes, launched in the early 1970s, are receding from the Sun slightly more slowly than expected. This so-called Pioneer anomaly, and the extraordinary and possibly related Allais effect, could indicate a flaw in General Relativity. ESA is considering a mission to test the Pioneer anomaly. This would exploit new technologies such as precise accelerometers, improved launch techniques and optical navigation methods, to produce the most precisely tracked spacecraft ever to go into deep space. The craft is designed to eliminate essentially all on-board effects that might mask the result, and its hyperbolic orbit, like that of the Pioneer probes, would allow it to distinguish between the different types of effect, including dark matter and dark energy, that might be causing the anomaly. [F][T] |
|||
| [T] Technology reviews | |
||
|
|
|
|
|
The September issue of Scientific American contains an appreciation of the Einstein's transformation of science in the 20th century and still into the 21st century, in anticipation of the centenary of 1905, the annus mirabilis in which he published so many great papers whilst working as a Swiss patent clerk. [T][F] The Economist has published a survey of the world car industry. Commercially the industry, particularly in the US is in poor health, and markets are running out of growth. Technologically, however, there is massive change which is likely to transform the industry, possibly allowing subsystem companies in telematics or hybrid-electric and electric propulsion to supplant some of the existing manufacturers. [T][E][I][K][M][P][R][U][W] |
|||
Searching the Newsletter: To quickly access the stories of particular interest to you, you can use the search functionality of your browsers/email client to skip to specific stories. This includes using the subject categorisation (eg [D]) to find all stories on a particular subject, and searching for a particular keyword.
Free access: We only include in iQ NewsNet articles that are available free of charge at the time. However, some sites may charge for access to past articles that are included in the archive.
Suggestions: If you have suggestions of other good sources of top stories
that could feature in future issues of iQ NewsNet please e-mail these to
ideas@iqnewsnet.co.uk..
| © QinetiQ 2001-2006 |